Adventures of an LDS Missionary: Post Hurricane Mathew

Hello everybody!

This week was really exciting! It's been pretty slow and we didn't have that many lessons but that's alright. The hurricane didn't really help...

For those that didn't know, there was a category 3 hurricane that came up the east coast of Florida this past weekend. Where I live, in Gainesville, just got some rain and wind. The east coast, on the other hand, had a lot of storm damage... It was crazy. The hurricane moved pretty slowly, so it stuck around in the Jacksonville area for about half a day solid.

Our branch missionaries, and some others, had the opportunity to go and clean up some mess from the storm in a city called St. Augustine. They live by the ocean and this house was just off the coast. There was a 9 foot storm surge that came up and flooded their entire yard, and the waves ended up going inside of their house and flooding everything. After the water finally left, pieces of their neighbor's dock were in this house's front yard, their dock was smashed into pieces, several trees had been knocked over, and all of their plants were flattened and scattered everywhere.

You see pictures of hurricane destruction on the news and the internet but it's just not the same as in real life... Before this weekend, I'd always thought, looking at hurricane aftermath, "That's a mess! How on earth do you clean up after that?" Well, I can tell you that it's just a lot of work. It's a muddy mess, and we were wading in water and mud up to our ankles all day (this was this past Saturday). We moved pieces of their dock, picked up branches and shrubbery, and took the boarding off of their windows that had been placed there to protect the glass.

There are a lot more critters here than there are in Wisconsin... As I was grabbing some of the mashed up plants, I looked under what I'd just picked up and there was a snake. Not the little garden snakes that you chase after and try to catch, but a solid 4 foot long, thick as your arm snake. I don't know what kind it was because it quickly slithered off into the mess. (The only analogy I have for what it was like wading in it was the garbage compactor scene in Star Wars Episode 4... Think that, but with alligators and snakes and muddy plants.)

Despite the mess, I was really glad to be able to help. When we first talked to the owner, his eyes were completely devoid of hope. He was talking and looking like there was no way that this could ever be cleaned up - like there was no way that his life could possibly be the same. After 7 hours of solid, hard work from more than a dozen people, his attitude had changed. There was hope in his eyes and a smile on his face.

I learned a lesson about service that day - whenever an opportunity to serve comes along, just drop everything and go do it. It doesn't matter if there are a number of legitimate reasons not so serve, just go do it. We can really bless people's lives and bring them hope as we do so.

Love y'all! Here are some pictures of the hurricane...

Part of their neighbor's dock...

Looking good! Never mind, just muddy.

Part of their dock. There were banana spiders and cockroaches all over them so we had to be careful while we moved these. (There were six or seven pieces like this."